As readers know, I like wheel guns.  I want one of these.  I can’t have one, so says my bank account.

The Cornell Daily Sun.

Charles’s Duke biography states he joined the Center for Firearms Law as executive director after practicing in the appellate group at McGuireWoods LLP, where he briefed cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits as well as in numerous state intermediate and high courts.

“I am here to convince you that an assault weapons ban would not violate the Second Amendment,” Charles said. “This is a fraught and contentious debate, and the people and their representatives — not lawyers in robes — should be the ones to decide whether an assault weapon ban best serves the public interest.”

Charles gave three reasons as to why an assault weapon ban would not violate the Second Amendment: history does not support the right to own an assault weapon, current constitutional doctrine does not impede an assault weapons ban and there are no good normative reasons to suppose that there is a constitutional right to own assault weapons.

In the title of the article, he’s called a “firearms expert.”  Very well, Jacob.  Can you supply us with a lecture on the controlling mathematical models and formulae for ballistics coefficient and sectional density?

I didn’t think so.  Some expert.

Note how in a speech on the constitutionality, he defers to the will of the people rather than whether ownership of weapons is constitutional.  This isn’t by mistake.  His philosophy is one of instrumentalism (Dewey), utilitarianism (Mills), or something else, but he would recoil in horror is you suggested that we pass a law that requires sacrificing someone named Jacob to Baal on alternating Thursdays.  So Jacob is an inconsistent philosopher at best, or perhaps he’s never really thought about any of this.

But his main arguments are all deeply flawed.  His training has all been without philosophical foundation, and thus he would defer to the rule of the majority for notion of rights rather than immutable law.

As we’ve discussed many times before, God is the author of rights and obligations, and the Almighty decides how to deal with His creatures and how they must live.  The constitution is a covenant between men, not a source document for rights.  Obedience to the covenant brings blessings and peace, while disobedience brings curses, both from men and God.  Just as God will never bless a spouse who cheats on covenant marriage vows, He will never bless a stiff-necked people who refuse to honor agreements they have made to live together.

The constitution clearly stipulates not that we may posses firearms of our own choosing, but rather that the government may not interfere with our choices.  As for that silly, juvenile notion that history doesn’t support this (e.g., the founders couldn’t possibly have imagined semi-automatic firepower), we’ve also seen how clearly incorrect that is.

We’ve also studied the obligations that the Almighty places on us for protection of home and hearth.  Little more needs to be said, because while feigning independence and scholarship, one thing is clear.  The Duke University Center for Firearms Law is biased, bigoted and certainly not scholarly.

These folks will never be Dave Hardy, Dave Koppel or Stephen Halbrook.  They’ll always play second fiddle to the real scholars.

Oh, one more thing, Jacob.  I’ll be happy to engage in a written debate with you any time over these pages.

American Thinker.

Since 2015, residents of the state of Maine have been allowed to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit, and now the results are in: crime has fallen to the point where the state is now rated the safest in the nation from the threat of crime. The Maine Examiner reports:

When Maine passed a “Constitutional Carry” law allowing Maine residents to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit in 2015, opponents of the law forecast a dangerous future for the state. They said the new law would hurt public safety and put Maine kids at risk.

One state representative who opposed the bill went so far as to say it would give Mainers a reason to be afraid every time they went out in public or to work.

Another state representative suggested the law would lead to violent criminals with recent arrests and convictions legally carrying handguns.

The controllers always say things like that.  They’re all liars and thieves.  The controllers said open carry would lead to blood running in the streets in Texas.  It didn’t happen.  They said that open carry would lead to blood running in the streets in Oklahoma.  It didn’t happen.

And on we could go.  You know the drill.

News from Georgia.

Deer season for archery is currently open in Georgia, but firearms season doesn’t start until Oct. 19. Meanwhile, Glynn County police and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources is continuing to investigate how a teen was shot dead by another man’s rifle while hunting Saturday.

Bobby Lane, 17, was pronounced dead at a hospital after police say fellow hunter Hector Romero mistook him for a deer, according to a DNR news release.

Witnesses told police that all of the parties involved knew each other and came to the Myers Hill area to go hunting. Police were called to a wooded area in the 500 block of Myers Hill Road in response to reports of a person shot. Once there, officers met with a group of hunters at Friendly Express on highways 82 and 303.

First Coast News spoke with Lane’s cousin who says Lane and Romero were hunting friends and had been on trips before.

Firearms season doesn’t start until October 19 and Rawling said Lane and Romero knew of the state regulations.

“I’ve been hunting for a very long time and in all my years of hunting, I’ve been told if you don’t exactly know what it is, 100 percent exactly what it is, you do not pull the trigger,” Rawling said.

Let’s see.  Four legs versus two, deer skin versus human skin, clothing, etc., etc.  Yea, I can see how the mistake was made.

This is absolutely stupid.  First of all such a shot risks an unethical kill on a deer.  Second, it risks killing a human.

Don’t be this person.

Via Kenny, question asked and answered.

Another misgiven “fact” I see running rampant is associated with comparing stainless steel to chromemoly steel barrels for longevity. Stainless steel barrels will, yes, shoot their best for more rounds, but, chromemoly will shoot better for an overall longer time. Lemmeesplain: the difference is in the nature of the flame cutting effect on these two steels. Stainless tends to form cracks, looking like a dried up lakebed, while chromemoly tends to just get rough, like sandpaper. The cracks provide a little smoother surface for the bullet to run on (until they turn into something tantamount to a cheese grater). The thing is that when stainless stops shooting well it stops just like that. So, stainless will go another 10 to 15 percent more x-ring rounds, but chromemoly is liable to stay in the 10-ring at least that much longer than stainless steel.

Good information to know.

It sure seems like one day Florida LEOs would get the news.  Who trains these guys anyway?

Market Watch.

Convictions for driving under the influence may be linked to the risk of being arrested for subsequent violent crimes, a new study of legal gun owners suggests.

Researchers studied 79,678 California handgun owners from their first legal firearm purchase in 2001 until 2013, using the state Justice Department’s database of legal handgun sales.

During that period, nearly 9% of the 1,495 handgun buyers with previous DUI convictions were later arrested for crimes classified as violent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crime index: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Only 2% of the 65,700 buyers with no previous criminal history wound up being arrested for those violent crimes, according to the study, which was published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Mmm … I see.  So we should punish the other 91% for what the 9% did or may do.

I wonder if the authors listened to how stupid this sounds before they went to press with it?  Oh, and they left out something about throwing chicken bones and visits to their local palm reader and community witchdoctor.

From a reader, news from New Zealand.

A man who took a bullet for his country is getting over the ordeal of being “interrogated” after he tried to get into a gun buyback event with his support dog in Canterbury.

Dion Taka took his service dog, Delta, with him when he went to hand his guns over in Rakaia on Saturday. It was already a daunting prospect for the war veteran.

Badly wounded when he was shot in Afghanistan in 2012 in the Battle of Baghak, he now lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and type-2 complex regional pain syndrome.

For the past two-and-a-half years, Taka has been able to resume some of his independence with Delta by his side. She is able to recognise his anxiety and calm him down, and performs a raft of other duties including fetching medication.

“It took me a couple of weeks to decide to go [to the gun buyback], but I knew I had to,” Taka said. “I just put on a happy, brave front to get though it.”

He walked in and was greeted by a row of police officers down one side and a row of contractors down the other, all dressed in black.

Taka said one of the contractors immediately called him back to put his rifle and accessories on the desk, and tie Delta, who was wearing her service jacket, up outside.

“I told him, ‘she is a service dog, she is working’. But he told me again to tie her up outside.”

When Taka again refused, the contractor asked why he needed a service dog.

“I told him, ‘for situations like this. I have PTSD’. Then he asked me what I was there for, which was a pretty stupid question. I told him was there to hand my guns in.”

Taka said the contractor then whistled at him “like a dog” two or three times and asked if he ought to own a gun if he had PTSD.

He said the contractor also told him he should “see someone” instead of just having a dog to stroke.

Contractor.  In other words, someone being paid money for confiscating weapons from other men.  I wish the dog had turned and bitten him in the ass.

So contractor, quit being a coward.  Go earn your creds by doing this across the pond.